Taking on IBM in Sales-Commission Case Fun but Tough for Lawyer

Litigating against IBM Corp. over its sales-commission practices has been tough, but “it’s been fun,” plaintiffs’ counsel Matthew E. Lee, a partner at Whitfield Bryson LLP in Raleigh, tells Bloomberg Law.

Lee and his co-counsel scored a major victory against IBM in May, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit revived their client Justin Fessler’s claims that the company had unlawfully capped his sales commissions, after repeatedly telling him that his earning potential was limitless in sales meetings and PowerPoint presentations.

Matthew E. Lee

The Fourth Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia’s ...